2002 Sawamura Award

Koji Uehara won the 2002 Sawamura Award. It's kind of like the Cy Young award except that they only have one for both leagues. (That's how it used to be with MLB, too, I believe -- before Koufax changed that.)

Actually, this makes it more comparable with the Cy Young award in terms of difficulty because you have to beat out pitchers from 12 teams.

On a side note, the fact that most awards are given in both leagues almost short changes NPB's level of play in the US media. I mean, how many gold gloves would Hideki Matsui have won if there are only 3 for the entire NPB? Ichiro had a lower average than Bobby Rose one season, so technically he didn't lead NPB in batting for 7 years in a row.

I'm not sure from your post if you realize this, but the Sawamura is the only award which is not given in each league. Even if you realize it, I felt your post might confuse some people if I did not post this "correction."

Jim Albright

Yes, I realize that. It's bad wording on my part. Most awards have two versions available, one for each league. Pitchers from all 12 teams must compete for 1 Sawamura award.

I'm not sure if it is the only award not given in each league, though. There are some lesser known awards specifically given to a particular league (mostly CL, I believe).

- I'm not sure if it is the only award not given in each league, though. There are some lesser known awards specifically given to a particular league (mostly CL, I believe).

Perhaps I should have said I am not aware of any other awards not given in both leagues. Certainly, the "major" awards other than Sawamura (i.e. Rookie of the Year, MVP, Golden Glove, Best Nine) are given in each league.

What are some of the awards given in only one league? Do you have a listing of winners of such awards we could post here and/or in the baseballguru archive?

Jim Albright

I went and looked around the NPB official website [Awards] (sorry, couldn't find an English version). The only difference I notice now is that the PL has a pitching award for the highest winning percentage called something along the lines of "Pitcher of the Year" (最優秀投手, in addition to the Best Nine Award. The CL also has an award called "Pitcher of the Year," except that it's given to who ever wins the Best Nine Award (and I have no idea what the point of that is).

In this CL site:

They have a listing of 2002 "Go Go Awards" winners. It seems to be a CL-only monthly award, probably not even worth mentioning. The names of awards are interesting though:

• April: "Go Spikes Award"
• May: "King of K Award"
• June: "Magic Glove Award"
• July: "Wedge Up Award"
• August: "Extra Miler Award"
• September: "Super Arm Award"

I was originally thinking of how the CL used to give out an award for most game winning RBIs in the early '90s. I guess they stopped doing that.

I might add that a complete historic list of the winners for the various awards can be found in the Japanese baseball data archive (along with other info)
at The Baseball Guru.

Jim Albright